[MUD-Dev] Alright... IF your gonan do DESIESE...

[Chris Gray]

[Chris L:]
:Its been too long since we've had any decent size posts.  This list
:used to be rife with 30K signal filled chunks. 

Actually, I prefer the smaller posts - easier on the meatware!

[Much discussion of death, partial death, etc.]

You seem to have a strong desire for "something different". I can
understand that, but you want to make sure that when everything is
done, the game is still playable. That, as we've seen from the RP and
non RP posts, will vary a lot. However, it strikes me that something
that few players will put up with for long is a lot of frustration.
After all, MUDs are normally played for entertainment, and not many
people find their own frustration entertaining. That's one of the
reasons I went with the tired old hack of having "death" just be a
weakening of the character, and loss of inventory. As a (newbie!) MUD
player, I find any game in which I can't make some kind of early
progress to be too frustrating. The same is true when I play nearly
any kind of computer game. Early progress is important, otherwise I
can't "get into the game", and don't have the desire to learn more
about it. On the other end of the scale, killing off a character that
has taken a lot of effort to develop, can also be quite frustrating.
In typical computer games, backups are allowed, which lets the player
try dangerous things, but without the thread of losing everything.
The fact that so many games do that (starting with the Scott Adams
adventures, and continuing with Infocom) must say something about what
is perceived as making a playable game.

:I've attempted to solve this in a round-about way, mostly via
:side-effects of other design decisions.

And you have come up with some very interesting things by doing so. I
like the concepts of body stealing, body-less godhood, watching
through another character's body's eyes, the spirit world, etc. It
would take me a while to get comfortable with using the system,
however. It seems to me that your system is aimed at the advanced MUD
player. Is that a conscious choice?

I'm going to leave comments about the actual details to the advanced
MUD players on the list - I don't feel qualified to comment further.

Re: Silverlock. I'm pretty sure I've got it around here somewhere, but
a quick search didn't find it. It must be buried in a box of
paperbacks. I must admit to not remembering anything about the story,
but just remember the picture on the cover. Vague ticklings about
the story are there, but no details. (Just shows I read too much!)

--
Chris Gray   cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA